Monday, June 07, 2010

What is killing California?

Public employee unions are killing California. Who made that possible? Jerry Brown, when he was governor the first time around.

What is a great reason for not allowing Jerry Brown back into the California Governor's chair? Former mayor of San Diego, radio talk host, and columnist Roger Hedgecock lays it out:
Perhaps even more damaging to California was 1978 legislation signed by then Gov. Brown allowing collective bargaining for public employees. No single act has changed California for the worse more than this one.

Before 1978, there was a relatively small state government. Employees were protected by civil service. Pay was lower than comparable jobs in the private sector but job security and good benefits – plus the old notion of "public service" – drew many talented people to work in government.

Today, the primary goal of powerful public employee unions is to get the Legislature they bought and paid for to enact a new law making it illegal for any city or county to declare bankruptcy without guaranteeing union contract terms. Taxpayers and "public service" be damned....
Read the rest of Mr. Hedgecock's enlightening column here.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I shudder at the thought of ole Jerry Brown being in charge of this state again. I unfortunately came of age during his first reign of terror, and I know all to well the damage he did. He is the Union's biggest streetwalker bringing in the most money from the johns (small businesses) in this state. Why people in the union do not understand that their union is the parasite destroying small business in California is beyond my reasoning. Our small business no longer exists due to the demon known as the Carpenter Union.